Soups

How many soup posts can be made? Apparently thousands during the winter months.
A couple of weeks ago I started by making soups of every color, red, orange, yellow and green. I lost the majority of the photos and wasn't able to complete my project of going after purple, brown, and blue. Without completing my project, I show you two soups.

Green Kale Soup:
This soup used boiled chard and steamed broccoli, pureed it all with lots of spices and my green soup was done, and damn tasty.

Corn Chowder:
When I created this soup I had already created my yellow corn soup, so I went for a twist to my corn chowder. Caramelized onions, carrots, corn, tarragon and potatoes in a creamy soy and vegetable broth.
It was nice to have a stew-like meal with creamy potatoes.

Breading

This is my favorite breading for anything from tofu to eggplant.

Basic Breading:
1 cup corn flakes
3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon seasoning

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until small crumbs remain.
You can always add other spices depending on what you're cooking. Garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregano and cumin are always good.

Breaded tofu with a side of roasted corn salad.
The tofu was marinated in a soy sauce and powdered vegetable broth.

Canned wheat chicken with roasted vegetables and rice.
My local Asian grocer has a variety of canned fake meats. I pick them up every once and awhile. This canned setian I breaded and baked before serving with some roasted veggies over rice.

Raw Dinner

As much as I love cooking, sometimes I like not cooking just as much.

This salad was inspired by SusanV, who, probably a year ago, posted about eating corn on the cob by rubbing it with lime and sprinkling with salt.

Spicy Corn Salad:
2 ears of corn
1/4 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon fresh dill
1/8 teaspoon (or to taste) chili flakes
Couples of shakes of salt to taste

Cut the kernels off the cob, mix with the spices and serve cold with a side of lime and dill.

I was going with raw lasagna, inspired by Nutshell, but I was missing a few ingredients so this is:

Tomatoes and Garlic Cream:
1 heirloom tomato cut into thirds
3 sprigs oregano
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1/2 cup soaked cashews
1/4 cup water or oil
Chives to garnish
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the cream sauce first by pureeing the soaked cashews and 1/2 the clove of garlic, add enough water or olive oil to make it a smooth, creamy consistency.
Make an oregano pesto with the oregano, olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper

Layer: 1/3 tomato, 1/2 of the cream sauce, 1/3 tomato, oregano pesto, 1/3 tomato, remaining cream sauce. Garnish with chives and cracked pepper.

Corn Chowder

I love Corn Chowder and I love to make it for other people. With corn season on the cusp I celebrated.
Here's my recipe.
The only thing I tweaked this time was using coconut oil instead of olive oil. I also ignored the potatoes since we didn't have any. It made it more soup-like without the potatoes.

Low-fat Potato Dinner

This dish is very filling and is pretty low in calories and fat but high in flavor.

Baked Potato with Salsa:
1/2 cup corn
2/3 cup black beans
1/2 cup chopped spinach
1 Tablespoon Wildwood Aioli or a vegan mayo
Salsa to taste

Mix the ingredients and serve over a warm baked with a side of salsa.

This dish was served with a side of yellow watermelon sprinkled with lime juice.

Grains

Since I haven't been to the farmers market in a few weeks the house has been lacking many vegetables. Below are some simple meals with mainly grains.

Garlic Israeli Cous Cous:
1 cup Israeli couscous
1 cup vegetable broth
4 cloves garlic
1/2 bunch garlic scapes

Cook couscous in broth until tender.
Saute 4 cloves of garlic for 1 minute before adding the small chopped garlic scapes.
Sprinkle with your favorite salt and serve warm.


Shells and Fresh Herbs:
Since visiting a great new Italian joint in my neighborhood I have been craving pasta - something I've stayed away from for years.
It also helps that my little herb garden is growing into a medium sized herb garden.
Here I used a similar mixture as I did with the popcorn, but with the special inclusion of garlic, and lots of it. Shells are easily my favorite pasta.


Roasted Corn and Rice:
1 cup rice, I used a mix of brown and black
2 cups water or vegetable broth
1 cup corn
1/2 cup frozen spinach
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tomato

Cook rice as normal.
Saute corn on high until it looks like it's burning a bit, just give it a good char. Add garlic and spinach and stir until the spinach is hot.
Mix the cooked rice and corn mixture. Add more powdered vegetable broth, pepper and salt to taste.
Serve warm with a side of tomatoes and sprinkling of salt and chopped parsley. This mixture held together really well and were almost like burgers so it went perfectly with the tomatoes.


Raspberry Lime Fruit Salad Dressing:
Juice of 2 limes
1/8 tsp guar gum
2 Tablespoons seedless raspberry jam/jelly
1/8 round of fresh ginger root, or to taste
1 teaspoon toasted poppy seeds

Juice the lime, add the minced ginger, guar gum (it acts as a thickener, if you don't have it, don't sweat it) and raspberry jam. Blend together until well combined. Add toasted poppy seeds and toss with the fruit.
I used grapes, cantelope, cherries and apples. This dressing was wonderfully tart, and spicy and a little bit smoky with the seeds. Enjoy this salad on your deck with good friends on a warm day.


My life no longer lacks a food processor. My kitchen feels complete. For the salad. I was able to use my food processor to juice the limes, mince the ginger and blend everything together. It was so quick and simple. I can't wait until I can whip up my favorite carrot salad in just a few minutes.

Tofu, Salad and Pie

My posts have been lacking because either my photos have not been turning out or my recipes have not been. Below are a few of the things that have turned out.
Tandoori Tofu:
My mother bought me a jar of tandoori marinade awhile ago and it's been such a treat to use with tofu. Here I marinated the tofu for two days before broiling. I also made a red bean and onion side to go with the tofu and rice.


Roasted Corn Salad:
Inspired by a Whole Foods salad I saw. This is great for picnics, which I hope to attend more of this summer.
1 bag of frozen corn
1 large handful of baby carrots, chopped
1 cup loose spinach, chopped
1 tsp. fresh chopped herbs of your choice. I used tarragon and a bit of rosemary
2 bulbs of garlic, roasted
1/4 sweet onion, chopped
Spices

Panfry the corn until browned. Turn heat to low and throw in carrots herbs and garlic. Add more oil if necessary. For a more smoky flavor, add 1/4 tsp or less of liquid smoke.
Once cooled added the chopped spinach and onion. This is a good dish to add red pepper if you're into them.
Julie's Chocolate Pie with Webly's Raspberry Topping:
At Vegfest a few weeks ago I attended some cooking sessions and was inspired by Julie's Chocolate Espresso truffle Pie. I love versatile recipes!
1 1/2 box of silken tofu
10 oz. melted chocolate
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup espresso
2 tsp. vanilla
1 9" crust

Put everything but the crust in the blender, blend until smooth, poor into pie crust and let set over night in the fridge.

Alright, I like this because it's easy as pie too!
My version is similar but with raspberry. I used soy milk in place of espresso. Before the pie set I carefully folded in some bone-free (seedless) raspberry jam. I then mixed silken tofu, raspberry jam and powdered sugar to make a thin raspberry topping.


I am currently working on a coconut cream pie, which is odd because I am not sure I ever had the non-vegan version. I'm also still working on the perfect cheesy sauce.
Outside of my cooking experiments I am planning the wedding, trying to fix up the house and keeping up to date on Jess and my other website: Stumptown Vegans.

Corn Chowder

Corn chowder
This is easily one of my favorite recipes. I look forward to corn season each year so I can make this. It seems more complicated than it is, but this recipe is much better with the homemade broth.

4 ears of corn
2 potatoes
4 cups water
1/2 - 1 large onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1 can light coconut milk
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
teaspoon

1. Broth: Fill pot with 4 cups water. Remove skins from onions, potatoes, and garlic, put in water. Cut the kernals off the cob (like this) and place the cobs in the pot (like this). Boil until mixture is about 2 cups. (This takes about as much time as it does to prepare everything else and clean up a bit.)

2. Chop onion into bits, saute until clear and a bit browned. Set aside.

3. Chop potatoes into bite sized pieces while onion is sauting (like this). Set aside with corn and chopped garlic.

4. Strain broth. Return clean broth back to pot, add 16 oz. light coconut milk or soy milk.

5. Add sauted onions, chopped potatoes, corn, garlic, 1/2 tsp. pepper, salt/braggs, and some fresh or dry tarrgon.

6. When potatoes are almost done, turn heat down and let cool 5 min before serving.

7. Remove about 1/2 of the soup and blend unil smooth. Return to pot and mis together.

8. Pour into bowls, adding a few taraggon leaves. Dust with salt, pepper.

9. Serve.

Alterations:
Soy milk can be used for those who are sensitive to the taste of coconut or want a low fat version.
Blue potatoes makes a wonderful fun color of soup and helps brighten up this light colored soup.
Other veggies can also be added, but I prefer to highlight the simple and sweet taste of the corn.